Appeal No. 2001-1405
Application No. 09/207,766
Tillenburg discloses a method for producing a brake pad for a disc brake which will
dampen or absorb vibration. The carrier plate 1 is made of two metal parts 2, 3 which
have a resilient bonding and dampening material 4 interposed between them, the friction
lining 5 of the brake pad being attached to part 3. The bonding material 4 between parts 2
and 3 is “slightly compressible, vibration-damping, heat-insulating, elastic and non-
swellable” (col. 4, lines 18 and 19), and may be cyclized rubber (col. 4, lines 34 and 35) or
other rubber related materials (col. 5, lines 9 to 17).
The examiner takes the position that (answer, page 5):
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the
invention, to have provided the invention of [AAPA-1] with the steps of
placing an elastic bonding material between contact surfaces of the at least
one base and the at least one fibrous material processing element and
elastically bonding the at least one base and the at least one fibrous material
processing element, in light of the teachings of Tillenburg, in order to reduce
vibration between the fibrous material processing element and the base.
Appellant argues on pages 7 to 9 of the reply brief that Tillenburg constitutes
nonanalogous art. However, under the view we take of this case, it is unnecessary to
decide this issue, and we will assume for the purpose of argument that it is analogous art.
While we appreciate the examiner’s position, we do not consider the rejection of
claim 1 to be well taken. The examiner contends that if one of ordinary skill were
faced with the problem of reducing vibration between a base and a fibrous material
3
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